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INAUG-TJR&TTDN ADDRESS 



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Seminary Park 



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Digitized by the Internet Archive 
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http://www.archive.org/details/inaugurationaddrOOspra 



ADDRESS 



The political constitution of the United States assumes as a pos- 
tulate the prevalence among the people generally of a high degree of 
education. Of all men, a ruler should be wise. Unless the people 
are very intelligent, a government by them will be either a tragedy 
or a farce. Even under an absolute despotism the theory is that ev- 
ery man knows the law ; for at his peril he must obey it. 

But in the United States the voter not merely obeys the law : di- 
rectly or indirectly, by action or by neglect, he makes it, interprets it, 
executes it, or nullifies it. His is the originating, guiding brain, as 
well as the obedient hand. He may be silly, or insane, or drunk, 
or malicious ; he nevertheless rules. There is no help for this : it is 
too late to restrict suffrage ; our government must be by the people. 

It is not simply a knowledge of what is right and what is wrong 
that is required, though that knowledge would have to be great to in- 
sure the safe, smooth, efficient working of the machinery. The re- 
lations of society are yearly growing more multiplied and intricate. 
Every municipality, and still more every State, is becoming a gigantic 
business corporation, carrying on many kinds of business, with many 
kinds of people. For instance : the town, the city, the county, the 
state, the nation, has land to be surveyed, bought, improved or 
sold ; boundaries to be run ; ships to be built and navigated ; forests, 
parks and gardens to be protected ; waters to be stocked with fish, or 
stored in reservoirs, or conducted in canals, or kept pure for drinking ; 
roads and streets to be laid out, or paved or lighted ; sewers, bridges, 
buildings of many kinds, to be built ; reformatories, prisons, work- 
houses, asylums, hospitals, to be managed ; moneys to be borrowed or 
invested ; law suits to be prosecuted or defended ; the public health, 
peace and morals to be conserved ; ordinances and statutes of a thou- 
sand kinds to be enacted; courts of justice to be maintained ; private 
property, reputation and personal liberty to be kept sacred ; children 
and youth of different races to be educated ; and a multitude of other 
business concerns to be handled with fidelity and skill. Not one of 



(4) 

the branches of learning ordinarily pursued in educational institutions 
below the grade of college is superfluous. All come in play, and 
directly or indirectly supply that information or that ability needed by 
every voter, in order that he may vote — that is, govern — well. 

Now, we have a machinery adapted, if rightly used, to secure just 
that needful discretion, that full knowledge of civil rights, that perfect 
promptness in the discharge of civil duties. It is the public school 
system, originated in New England, but now substantially adopted 
throughout the nation. Free schools, free colleges, free universities 
are primarily intended to do this very work, to turn out wise, patriotic, 
expert citizens. That is their raison d'etre. That should be their first 
and chief business. 

It is demonstrable that the true end and aim of public school edu- 
cation is not to enable a boy or girl to get a living. Of that living 
they are pretty sure, educated or not. It needs to be iterated and re- 
iterated, that the supreme object of the public, schools is to enable and 
dispose the young to be valuable members of the body politic — that 
is, to love their country, to know fully their civil rights, to discharge 
skillfully and magnanimously their civil duties. 

In this great work we have made beginnings — nothing more. We 
fall far short of the ideal. Nay, this very ideal does not even exist 
in the minds of the masses, nor has any statesman as yet heartily en- 
tered upon the work of creating it. A thorough education of every 
child in all the matters upon which his influence as a citizen is liable 
to be exerted; an education, too, that shall give him a firm grip upon 
fundamental principles, and give those principles a firm grip upon 
him ; an education that shall insure quickness and accuracy of judg- 
ment ; an education that shall make him passionately fond of his 
country; an education thoroughly pervaded by the sentiments of 
honor and inflexible justice — that is the standard. The best institu- 
tions for secondary instruction are none too high to impart this train- 
ing. Nothing short of a thorough and prolonged school course under 
upright teachers can suffice. How to draw every young person into 
such a curriculum, and to keep him there during the years of study, 
is the question. It cannot be by compulsion ; it must be by means 
yet untried ; perhaps by liberal pecuniary rewards bestowed for good 
conduct and good scholarship — rewards so liberal that the poorest 
parent can well afford to lose the earnings of his child during those 
studious years. 

For want of such education of every child, the nation, every state, 



Mills Seminary. 



[ From The Occident, San Francisco, of April i, 1885.] 

Editor Occident: — Twice, recently, the writer has enjoyed the pleas- 
ure of a visit to Mills Seminary, near your city, and so favorable have 
been the impressions received that I feel strongly inclined to speak a word 
in its behalf through your columns. I shall therefore be pleased if you 
can find space for my brief communication in reference to it. 

On both of these occasions I had opportunity for conversation with the 
teachers; for meeting, incidentally, a number of the pupils; and, what was 
quite as important for my purpose, for quietly making my own observa- 
tions of matters and things. The result of it all was the decision that, 
were I a young woman of the Pacific Coast, and about to enter upon a 
course of study in some institution disconnected with the public school 
system, I should begin and end my curriculum at Mills Seminary. 

The following are some of my reasons: First, the location of the school 
is without fault as to healthfulness. Purer air and more, of it no one could 
ask. No institution in either of the large cities on the shores of your bay 
can compare with the Seminary in this respect. 

Next, the situation itself is very beautiful. In this respect, also, no 
other school in the State excels it. This feature furnishes an element in 
education too often entirely wanting. No fresh young life can expand, 
during four years, amid all that marvelous display of tree and flower, and 
that delightful series of hills and valleys, without results upon character as 
charming as are the surroundings themselves. Let a sensible girl walk to 
the top of Prospect Hill, and study for a while the magnificent view from 
that point — the glistening bay on the right, the long range of green hills 
on the left, and the many tinted valleys between — and think the thoughts 
which must come into mind, and gradually that bit of divine hand-paint- 
ing will become a part of herself. More and more she will become like 
Him who made both sea and land. 

Then, there exists the quiet, so necessary to comfort, as well as the 
highest success in study. The nerves of the pupils are not compelled to 
bear the double strain of hard study and of incessant clatter of town life. 
For young women, especially, this is a great advantage. Yet how seldom 
parents take it into account in placing daughters at school Mills Semi- 
nary is quite near enough to the two cities for the pupils to avail them- 
selves of their special privileges, and just remote enough to avoid their 
harmful influences. 

Again, the building itself is finely adapted to its purpose, with its sunny, 
well-aired rooms for study, for recitation, for sleeping, and its numerous 
long halls for exercise in stormy weather. And besides being admirably 
clean and orderly throughout, the building is thoroughly warmed every 
cool morning and evening. This is a matter in which every parent feels 



concern, and one of no little moment, even in your fine climate. Its walls, 
also, are hung with many choice pictures — oil paintings, steel engravings, 
and photographs of ancient statuary — so that this atmosphere of art sur- 
rounds the pupils daily, exerting the same educating influence as does the 
beauty outside. Other facilities for improvement are the cabinet and 
the library, both in buildings separate from the Seminary. In the former 
is arranged a really valuable collection of specimens, for illustration in 
Natural History studies. In the latter, a beautiful structure, are several 
hundred volumes, always accessible for reference or for courses of reading. 

Seldom has the writer visited an institution of its class, even in New 
England, in which there prevailed to such a degree the atmosphere of a 
refined Christian home. A chief desire of Mrs. Mills seems to be, to ever 
present before her charge an example of elevated home life. The sim- 
plicity of the life led deeply impressed me. There is an utter absence of 
ostentation in dress and manners, and everybody is natural. Any one who 
believes that a continued lofty civilization in America depends most of all 
upon the exalted life of its homes, will appreciate at its full value the in- 
fluence Mills Seminary exerts upon the daughters of California in this 
regard. It is a pleasure to know that most of the young women it educates 
will, in time, become the central attraction in homes of their own, and will 
there carry out the ideas they have received. To prepare them for such a 
position, can any outlay be too great ? 

I learn that at the beginning of the next year — school year — the Semi- 
nary will inaugurate a college curriculum, as complete as any pursued in 
the colleges for young women in New England. This will" add to the 
present inducements for seeking an education within its walls. 

The institution being not a private one, but holding a charter from the 
State, and being in the hands of a self-perpetuating board of trustees, be- 
sides being long established, must be permanent, and therefore needs but 
to be liberally endowed to enable it to extend its privileges and blessings 
to many young women of the coast, who now, through lack of means, 
cannot avail themselves of them. It has been stated that the girls of the 
mountain towns and the rural villages, particularly, are urgent to take a 
course of study "at Mills." This is an honor alike to the school and to 
the girls; unspoiled by the frivolities of city life, these inland girls furnish 
the best kind of material for making noble women. Surely, high motives 
of patriotism, if no other, demand that its doors be thrown wide open to 
them. Then let Mills Seminary be endowed, until it can fully carry out 
the broad plan of its founders, which is to provide for able young women 
a liberal education on the lowest possible terms. Make the institution 
strong, like your railroads; enduring, like your Sierras. And let Califor- 
nia wealth do it. State pride forbids going east of the mountains to pro- 
cure funds for a local object so beneficent. 

Stranoer. 



ZMills Seminary and College 



■886 



83* Superintendents of schools, principals of young ladies' 1 seminaries, and all 
who would promote the higher education of women, are earnestly requested to place 
this announcement in the hands of those likely to be specially interested in the 
subject. 



ANNOUNCEMENT 

&{0V. ib, i88 5 

U\4ills Seminary and College 



REQUISITES FOR ADMISSION TO THE COLLEGE. 

The requirements for admission to the Freshman Class for the year i885 will 
be as follows : * 

i. The Latin and Greek Grammars, with special reference to the principles 
involved in the required translations; viz., in 

2. Harkness's Latin Prose, First and Second Parts; or Jones's Latin Prose; 

3. Four Books of Ccesar; or the Catiline of Sallust; 

4. Seven Orations of Cicero; 

5. First six Books of Virgil's /Eneid; 

6. Four Books of Xenophon's Anabasis; 

7. Three Books of Homer's Iliad. — 

8. Arithmetic. 

9. Algebra through Progression. 

10. The whole of Plane Geometry. 

11. So much of Grammar and Rhetoric as will enable the student to present 
a simple essay on some subject, selected at the examination, from 

12. Scott's Lady of the Lake; Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice; Six 
Selections from Irving's Sketch Book (published by Ginn & Co., Boston). 



* The requisites are the same as those at Smith College, Mass., for the year 1885, 
with the addition of the English examination, as specified above in No. 12, and the omission 
of English into Greek. Equivalents will be accepted. 



PREMIUMS. 

SS" Among those who shall pass a satisfactory examination, and be admitted 
to the Freshman Class next July, a sum of money, not less than seven hundred 
dollars, will be equally divided, to be refunded to the treasury if the recipient 
shall fail to complete in the institution the regular four years' college course. 

CURRICULUM OF FIRST YEAR. 

The studies for the Freshman Year will be substantially as follows: 

1. Livy, Tacitus, Horace. 

2. Homer, Herodotus, Plato. 

3. Algebra, Geometry. 

4. Bible Study, with lectures. 

5. Hygiene, with lectures and physical exercise. 

6. Greek and Roman History. 

7. French, German, or Spanish. 

8. English Language and Literature. 

9. Elocution. 

N. B. — The Seminary Course will be continued substantially as here- 
tofore, with added advantages. 

TERMS. 

Tuition in all of the branches of the regular college course, including 
modern languages, board, furnished room and washing, per term of 
20 weeks $165 

Piano lessons and use of instrument, per term $50 to $80 

Organ lessons and use of instrument, per term. 50 

Private singing lessons, per term, including class lessons 50 

Class singing lessons, per term 10 

French, German or Spanish 20 

Crayon and Pencil Drawing, per term 25 

Water Colors and Oil Painting, per term 35 

Catalogues containing full information in reference to the Seminary will be 
sent on application to the President, Homer B. Sprague, or to Mrs. C. T. Mills, 
Mills Seminary, California. 



(5) 

and nearly every county, city and town are suffering today ; bur- 
dened, many of them, with unnecessary debt and taxation; burdened 
sometimes with sorrow and shame ; burdened, all of them, with 
anxious forebodings. For want of such education of every child, 
some twenty years ago we threw into the fire of civil war ten thous- 
and million dollars, sacrificed eight hundred thousand lives, the flow- 
er of American manhood, and filled the whole land with mourning. 
For want of such education of every child, the thoughtful patriot 
fears lest mobs, or dynamiters, or nihilists destroy life and property. 
In such education of every child is found the prevention or the cure 
for every political evil we feel or fear. Through such education of 
every child we shall find a solution of the harassing questions con- 
nected with international relations, civil service reform, silver coin- 
age, paper currency, free trade and protective tariff, freedom of the 
ballot, the Monroe doctrine, prohibition or license, what to do with 
the Chinese, what to do with the Mormons, what to do with the In- 
dians, what to do with monopolies, what to do with ecclesiasticism, 
and innumerable other momentous issues sure to arise. 

The time has come for this great forward movement in education. 
It was an inconsistency on the part of our fathers that they did not 
originate it long ago. They do not seem to have foreseen the tre- 
mendous evils with which we have to grapple, or the avalanche of 
ignorance and prejudice that has been precipitated upon the nation. 
They placed the ballot in the hands of the people, but they did not 
make sure that the people should know how to cast it wisely. They 
supplied the motive power in the ship ; they did not make sure of 
the steering skill. Twice we have collided with England ; once with 
Mexico. The explosion of 1861, originating in erroneous doctrines 
of State rights, nearly tore our craft asunder. What assurance have 
we that another and a worse will not come ? The dangers from 
ignorance, prejudice, and false ideas can hardly be exaggerated. 
The thoughtful patriot in Boston, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, 
Cincinnati, remembering Pittsburg and Paris, shudders at the possi- 
bilities. Happy the statesman that shall take the lead in inducing 
the nation to apply the plain and sufficient remedy ; recasting the 
course of study, drawing into the schools, at least, a clear majority of 
the young, and by liberal premiums, holding them there until they 
become wise, patriotic, conscientious. The nation has ample pecu- 
niary means. All other remedies have proved inadequate ; this rem- 
edy is sure. A thorough high school education of the right sort, or 



(6) 

its equivalent, for every child, should be the ever-present aim. Our 
form of government demands it ; we stultify ourselves and imperil 
our dearest interests, if we neglect it. 

But the question will immediately arise : What need that girls re- 
ceive this high education ? We may answer, that not only must they 
obey the law, but they powerfully influence public sentiment in mak- 
ing and enforcing the law. As sisters, daughters, wives, mothers, 
they will control votes, and shape public policy. They are often the 
power behind the throne greater than the throne. " I govern Rome, 
my wife governs me, my boy governs her," said the old ruler. It is 
not safe that one-half of our population should be ignorant, or gov- 
erned by boys, even if not themselves electors. 

Looking at this subject, therefore, from the sole standpoint of 
patriotic citizenship, the argument for the thorough training of young 
women, as well as young men, is conclusive. All of the branches of 
a secondary course, and most of those of a college curriculum, are 
desirable, if not indispensable. Let it never be forgotten that an 
American woman, as truly as an American man, is under the strong- 
est obligation to love her native land, to be intelligent and well-in- 
formed as to the duties of citizens and the management of public 
affairs. It is with her, to some extent, a matter of self-preservation 
even. Her person, her reputation, her liberty, her property, her life, 
are at stake. She must know in order to obey. The best education 
is none too good for her as a citizen. We are not called upon to de- 
fine her rights. We merely assert that for the modest defense of 
those rights, whatever they are, and for the proper discharge of her 
duties, she needs the best intellect and the best information. 

But we are not simply members of political bodies. " Above all 
nations is humanity," says Goldwin Smith. We indeed owe the 
town, city, county, state, nation, our wisest, heartiest service, and 
that service requires many years of preparation ; but we are also sub- 
jects of another jurisdiction, members of another body, inhabitants 
of a larger country. We are citizens of the world, soldiers in the 
grand army of all mankind. More than this : we are the children of 
a King. The dome of the sky is the roof of our palace. " Jerusa- 
lem, which is from above, is free; which is the mother of us all." 
Because I am a member of the Republic of God, and still more, be- 
cause I am immortal, I need all the' equipment that education can 
bestow ; and I am entitled to it. So, I trespass not on the equal 
rights of others, and withhold not my best service to them, all that 



(7) 

art, or philosophy, or culture, or science, or learning, or literature, or 
history can impart, I may justly claim. Within the lines of my duty 
to the race, I ought to make the most of myself. Can any branch 
of learning, or any department of investigation, or any exercise of 
intellect best broaden, deepen, strengthen, adorn human nature? I 
have a right to it, and so has my sister or my daughter. 

With a view to self-support, if we look no further, woman needs 
the higher education more than man. She is physically weaker ; so 
much the more need of intellectual strength. He can earn his living 
by brute force j she must depend on brain rather than brawn, mind 
rather than muscle, delicacy rather than drudgery, the finger rather 
than the fist, the pen rather than the spade, the tongue rather than 
the arm, the pencil rather than the sledge-hammer. In many of the 
most highly civilized States women outnumber men, and in all of 
them there would seem to be an increasing number of the unmarried. 
In the nature of things, therefore, they must be largely self-support- 
ing. A highly educated woman is almost always capable of gaining 
a substantial livelihood. She knows better how to take care of her 
health. She knows better how to take care of her property. She is 
more fertile in resources. There are many fields of useful labor open 
to her from which her less educated sister is shut out. For instance, 
there is the field of journalism. Some of the ablest editors and 
some of the most valued contributors to newspapers and magazines, 
even in California, are women. There is the field of medical prac- 
tice. For all diseases of women and children — that is, for the great 
majority of cases requiring medical treatment — female physicians 
ought to be better than male. There is the field of authorship. 
Here, too, female writers of books have been among the most suc- 
cessful. I need but mention your own Mrs. Jackson. There is the 
field of teaching. Of the 300,000 instructors in the public schools, 
165,000 are women, to every one of whom a higher education would 
have given an increase of power. It is a very common and very 
serious mistake to train up girls as if the end and aim of their educa- 
tion should be matrimony. Marriage is not a thing to be sought nor 
shunned. It is an incident, not an end. It should no more be held 
up as the great object of a girl's life than it should be held up as the 
great object of a boy's life. High character and noble service to 
humanity are the objects of life, whether to male or female. The 
single life is often the happiest, often the most useful. Wedded life 
is often unfortunate, especially when the intellect is uncultivated. 



(8) 

But one thing is sure ; a highly educated woman — highly educated, 
I mean, in both mind and heart — if married, will make almost any 
home happy. Her husband cannot but reverence and love her. 
Her house will surely have a hundred sources of gladness and com- 
fort, of which the uncultivated know nothing. Her children will find 
in her a guide, philosopher, teacher, inspire*- ; one not foolishly but 
wisely tender; one who, if need be, can turn misfortunes into step- 
ping stones, find joy in privations, conduct her bright boys through 
the richest fields of art, of literature, and of science, prepare them for 
college, and even take them through a college course. To love such 
a woman as wife or mother is itself a good education. 

Is it not high time, too, that there should be a larger number of 
gifted women for companionship with gifted men ? The youth goes 
to college, leaving his sister behind. Through four years he is ad- 
vancing in intellectual attainments ; she is stationary. He studies a 
profession three years ; she reads the novels and the fashionable peri- 
odicals ; she eats, dances, paints, dresses, pounds the piano, rides in 
a carriage, goes to the opera, travels in Europe, moves in society, con- 
templates her face in the mirror, meditates on "the coming man." 
Her brother, practicing a profession, is always scaling new heights, 
or is daily growing wiser, keener, in the transaction of business. Ever 
since he went to college or began to conduct great enterprises, she has 
been at a stand-still, engaged in the dreary occupation of pleasure- 
hunting, or fashion-hunting, or, dreariest of all, husband-hunting. 
She has learned nothing worth knowing. Is that the woman best 
fitted to be the wife of a strong, true, earnest man — the mother of 
brave, manly, aspiring boys, or thoughtful, true-hearted girls ? Limi- 
tations of woman's spiritual nature thus react and retard the develop- 
ment of the race. 

Married or unmarried, the best thing for every young woman is to 
gain all possible cultivation of mind and heart as a preparation for 
noble living. In the sharp struggle for existence, or for business suc- 
cess, in the midst of dishonesty, in the midst of impurity, she must 
beunselfish, conscientious, pure, "wise as serpents, harmless as doves." 
All the more need, again, of the broadest knowledge, the most gen- 
erous discipline, the keenest intellect. Anybody can get rich by steal- 
ing; she must get rich, if at all, by superior diligence, economy and 
sagacity. If her education has been sound, she will have learned to 
be content with slow gains and small savings; to respect honest labor, 
however humble it may be, and to live within her income. She will 



(9) 

not wear out her soul, nor harden her heart, in persistent struggles to 
be rich. She will set a just estimate upon mere wealth, for she will 
have learned with Carlyle that " Nature, when her scorn of a slave is 
divinest, and blazes like the blinding lightning against his slavehood, 
often enough flings him a bag of money, silently saying — ' That ! 
away ! thy doom is that !' " She will have laid up against all possible 
adversity imperishable stores of noble imagery, of lofty sentiment, of 
precious truths ; she will have acquired the more than Midas touch 
that turns the commonest things to treasures more precious than the 
golden wedge of Ophir. She will have proved by her own experience 
that "Wisdom is better than rubies, and all the things thou canst de- 
sire are not to be compared unto her ; length of days is in her right 
hand, and in her left hand are riches and honor ; her ways are ways 
of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace." 

But some one may say, " Girls, as well as boys, ought to receive a 
practical education." Granted; but what is practical? Is nothing 
practical but what ministers directly to bodily wants, or helps to coin 
money? Is anything more practical than perfect health, keenness 
and consecutiveness of thought, nimbleness of apprehension, the abil- 
ity to study a subject long and deeply and to arrive at a sound con- 
clusion, quickness to recognize merit and detect shams, an eye to 
see and a hand to test the contents of an object, the accurate estimate 
of human nature which comes from association with the sages and 
heroes of the past and with many growing minds, a heart to appre- 
ciate goodness and greatness, a soul to enjoy noble thought, lofty 
imagination, sharp wit, genial humor, beautiful or grand scenery, ex- 
quisite music, the masterpieces of art ? 

But it may be objected that young women of eighteen or twenty 
ought to be " in society." I know how fascinating much of this so- 
called " society " is ; a ceaseless round of pleasure, the glitter of wealth, 
the pomp of fashion, the jewels, the dresses, the equipage, the furni- 
ture, the rouge, the perfume, the pride of personal beauty, the flattery, 
balls, operas, " aesthetic tea," splendid music, brilliant breakfasts with 
distinguished artists or rising authors, or freshly imported, sometimes 
real, noblemen — it is all very fine ; literally very intoxicating some- 
times ! And it does not require much intellect ? No. An uneducated 
woman can dress well, though not quite so tastefully as if she had 
waited and studied four or five years more. She can paint canvas or 
complexion, though not quite so delicately as her highly educated 
sister. She can eat and drink, though not quite so discreetly. She 



(io) 

can converse, though not quite so wittily or so sensibly. She may, in 
spite of temptations, become at last a good wife, though not quite so 
beloved ; a good mother, though not quite so revered. But when the 
rose of youthful beauty has faded, and there is no mental beauty to 
take its place ; when the whirl of fashionable pleasure has ceased, and 
there is no lofty intellectual joy to follow ; when the essential vanity 
and bitter mockery and shameful waste of living for show torture the 
awakened conscience ; how sad the lament, how keenly felt, though 
unspoken, " Would I had secured a good education before I entered 
society ! My life would not have been so total a failure. But it is 
too late." O, American girl; child, perhaps, of one who fought for his 
country; descendant, perhaps, of one who loved truth more than life ; 
daughter, it may be, of one who faced dangers and encountered toils 
and submitted to privations on this far-off coast, that he might gain 
the means of making his children happier than himself; ill does it be- 
come you to leave unimproved all that is most angelic in your nature; 
untasted the pleasures of science and the delights of learning and the 
glory of a cultivated intellect, and plunge prematurely, if at all, into 
the vortex of fashion and frivolity and pleasure-hunting and hus- 
band-hunting ! 

" Thou wast not made for lucre, 
For pleasure, nor for rest." 

What are the ends to be sought in the higher education ? I an- 
swer : 

i. Physical perfection. Perfect health of body is essential to 
perfect intellectual and spiritual excellence. Great genius and the 
most saintly characters have indeed existed in frail and diseased 
bodies ; but it is clear that, as a rule, such mental or spiritual gifts 
could have accomplished far more, if the physical frame had been 
the willing and efficient instrument of the soul, instead of a clog or a 
burden. Then, too, God has made us lovers of beauty, of symme- 
try, of grace, and of strength ; and, so far as is consistent with the 
obligations we owe to others, it is our duty to be good-looking, sym- 
metrical, graceful, and strong. It has not been customary in college 
to attach importance to physical excellence. In some of the fore- 
most it has been totally ignored. In none has it yet received 
adequate attention. We want no female acrobats, or athletes, or 
amazons ; but we do want health, strength, endurance. Every seed 
of disease should, so far as possible, be eradicated ; every curable 



(II) 

physical imperfection remedied ; every awkwardness corrected. There 
is no necessity for consumptive chests, unnaturally curved spines, 
Grecian bends that would have excited the laughter or pity of every 
Greek, pet diseases, morbid appetites, squeamishness, languor, sloven- 
liness, clumsiness, ugliness. All human faces may look good ; and 
what is good-looking but looking good? All human forms maybe 
strong ; nearly all may be symmetrical. Every girl may be graceful 
in gesture, in walking, sitting, standing, in every movement ; and this 
strength and these graces should be insisted upon as conditions of 
promotion or graduation. 

How shall this excellence be secured ? By a well-endowed profes- 
sorship, with an incumbent who shall magnify his office and press 
these matters upon all concerned ; by thorough instruction in 
physiology and hygiene ; by unceasing effort under wise direction to 
overcome defects, to stimulate and to guide ; by unceasing vigilance 
on the part of every teacher ; by systematic and varied sports and 
recreations out of doors, and the best of light gymnastics within 
doors ; by some daily physical employment that has an element of 
utility, perhaps a form of housework ; by temperance in eating and 
drinking ; by careful obedience to all the laws that God has impressed 
upon the body ; by purity of heart, benevolence of thought, right- 
eousness of life. 

A distinguished Massachusetts educator, Bronson Alcott, at the 
age of eighty, upon being asked to what he owed his sound health in 
his old age, replied, " It is because I have kept the Ten Command- 
ments." But integrity of heart and life not merely contributes to 
health. The soul moulds the body to its own likeness. The 
sculptor within is forever carving your face to his own angelic or 
beastly or diabolical likeness. Spencer recognizes this fact when he 
says, 

" For of the soul the body form doth take, 
For soul is form and doth the body make." 

Milton recognizes this lofty moulding power of the soul in his 
picture of the perfect woman, Eve : 

"Grace was in all her steps, heaven in her eye, 
In every gesture dignity and love." 

Lowell, too, in his Ghost Seer, notices the opposite effect of the 
meaner spirit : 



"There walks Judas, he who sold, 
Yesterday his Lord for gold ; 
Sold God's presence in his heart 
For a proud step on the mart! — 
In his eye that stealthy gleam 
Was not learned of sky or stream, 
But it has the cold, hard glint 
Of new dollars from the mint." 

In the long run, the goodness inside will shine through*. Even the 
homeliest face, like that of Henry Clay with its steel-trap mouth, or 
that of Abraham Lincoln or George Eliot with its unspeakable out- 
line, may be so lighted up with intelligence, kindly sympathy and all- 
pervading charity, as to be winning and at times fascinating. It will 
be well for our youths and maidens to remember that the highest 
physical attractiveness is unattainable without intellectual and moral 
excellence. Would you be beautiful ? Be wise and good. In a 
more literal sense than is commonly supposed, the homely proverb is 
true, "Handsome is that handsome does." 

2. Intellectual perfection is of course to be a leading aim. Mental 
excellence is attainable by all. We see what we are trained to see ; 
and the world is a thousand-fold richer to the well-trained. The ob- 
ject is not ambitious display ; rather, the more education, the more 
modesty. What we want is sound common sense, the ability to meet 
and quickly conquer the difficulties that daily arise ; felicitous speech 
and felicitous silence ; an eye, microscopic, spectroscopic, and tele- 
scopic ; an ear quick to distinguish the melodies ; a rhythmic, creative 
soul ; a hand, deft, delicate, strong, because filled with brain. Usually, 
if not always, knowledge is power. Philology confirms practical phi- 
losophy ; for it declares that the man who knows is the man who can ; 
the king is the cunning, the knowing, the able. If an educated man 
work with his hands, he should strike a surer, heavier blow than the 
uneducated. But he will soon wield the elements, and, if he smite, 
it will be with a Thor hammer. If a rightly educated woman is a 
housekeeper, she will bring the resources of science to insure even the 
best food and fuel and light, perfect drainage, pure air and water, 
exercise that brings rosy health, the highest comforts of home. Sought 
in the right spirit, knowledge is nobleness. It lifts in the scale of being, 
makes us less like brutes, more like angels. We are drawn by our 
studies to believe that in the Divine Mind exists the type of every 
species of things, even including a plan of life for every living creature. 



(i3) 

Shall man, the crown of all His works, not have the noblest of all 
missions, a career of ideal perfection? Is it not a fair inference — nay, 
an irresistible conclusion? Normally, knowledge is joy. What glad- 
ness should be his who can read the thoughts recorded in rocks or 
stars ! What a world of beauty may he revel in, who can see with his 
mind's eye the contents and the possibilities in the tiniest seed, the 
minutest drop of water, the thinnest film of blood ! What delight 
should his be who has proved by investigation that, in spite of all 
seeming contraries, " the key-note of the universe is joy ! " Knowledge 
is inspiration. It suggests the power of an endless life. It infuses 
a sense of kinship with the loftiest souls that ever walked this earth, 
a kinship with God himself. What heroic efforts should he make, who 
knows that he is a coworker with the Omnipotent, and recognizes in 
history the unmistakable hand of Him who " doeth His will in the 
armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth " ! 

As instrumentalities in this higher intellectual training, the classics 
and the mathematics have hitherto occupied the most prominent 
place. The prolonged study of the Latin and Greek tongues has in 
the course of ages become a kind of mentnl gymnastics, admirably 
fitted to insure thoroughness, precision, force, flexibility, and delicacy 
of thought.* The method of teaching them in the best schools is 

* The expediency of dispensing with the study of Greek in schools prepara- 
tory to college was pretty thoroughly tested in the University of Berlin during the 
ten years preceding 1880. A decree of the Minister of Public Instruction, at Ber- 
lin, December 7, 1870, directed that students who had completed the course of 
study in the Rcalschule, should be admitted for the purpose of studying mathe- 
matics, physical and natural sciences, or modern foreign languages. In the 
Realschule, as compared with the Gymnasium, the study of Greek is en- 
tirely dispensed with, the study of Latin is considerably reduced, and the time so 
gained is given to English, German, French, mathematics, and physical and nat- 
ural science. Accordingly, many hundreds of students so prepared in the Rcal- 
schuh were admitted into the University of Berlin. What was the result ? On the 
8th of March, 1880, after a ten years' trial, the Faculty, consisting of thirty-six regular 
professors of this, perhaps the foremost of the German universities, presented to the 
Royal Minister of State their unanimous opinion in writing against the plan of dis- 
pensing with Greek, and in favor of a return to the old classical standard. The pro- 
fessors of Higher Mathematics say that the classically trained pupils "are, as a rule, 
superior to their fellow-students from the Realsclmh in scientific impulse and appre- 
hension, and in capacity for a deeper understanding of their science. 1 ' The pro- 
fessor of Astronomy declares that, "almost without exception, the young men 
trained in the Realschzih, cannot in the end bear comparison with those 
trained in the Gymnasium, their development being slower, more superficial, 
and less independent." The professors in Chemistry say that those classically 
trained in the Gy7nnasium "almost invariably carry off the honors in the 
end," "have acquired in a higher degree the ability to understand and solve sci- 
entific problems," "evince a more lively interest than the graduates of " Real- 
schulen " and Industrial schools," and "stand relatively better in the examina- 
tions." The instructors in the Descriptive Natural Sciences observe that the 



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wonderfully fine, almost one of the fine arts. The study under such 
training imparts tone and character to a whole institution. It mar- 
velously enriches and vivifies the English vocabulary, at least two- 
thirds of which is taken directly from those languages. It opens in- 
teresting and instructive chapters in history. It puts the learner in 
intimate communion with some of the choicest intellects and great- 
est souls. It introduces to wonderful civilizations, in which the stu- 
dent is like a traveler in a new land, gaining breadth and wisdom at 
every step. It lifts into regions of imagination, from which all mod- 
ern literatures, and more especially the English, have drawn thou- 
sands of beauties and glories, unintelligible or dim to one who knows 
them but at a second hand. It familiarizes with those masterpieces 
in poetry, oratory, history, philosophy, sculpture, architecture, and 
dramatic art which are the finest models in existence. It exempli- 
fies and inculcates a chaste beauty of literary style that has never been 
equaled. It lays the foundation for the speediest thorough acquisi- 
tion of the French, Italian, and Spanish languages, and facilitates the 
acquisition of German. It has hitherto been almost universally 
recognized as the only road leading to the degree of Bachelor of 

students from the Realschulen have a "defective knowledge, not only of the 
Latin, but of the English and French languages" ; that "the names and terms 
borrowed from the Greek cannot be made clear to them, and their want of prac- 
tice in Latin is very much felt " ; and that they " often evince less cleverness and 
more dullness in comprehending and expressing again what they have heard." 
The instructor in the English language complains of the Rccdschuler , that 
" their attainments in Latin are not so trustworthy as would be desirable" ; that 
he has "often felt the want of a knowledge of Greek on the part of this portion of 
his hearers, making grammatical instruction more difficult"; that " acuteness of 
apprehension and independence of judgment have been almost entirely lacking 
among them." The professor of German says, "Judging from my experience, it 
is simply impossible for one who has been prepared in the Realschuh, to ac- 
quire a satisfactory scientific education." 

It will be observed that the foregoing opinions are from those very depart- 
ments that might naturally be expected to be most favorable to the omission of 
Greek. The distinguished President of the University, Dr. August Wilhelm Hof- 
mann, Professor of Chemistry and chiefly famous for his great achievements in the 
field of the physical sciences uses the following language in his inaugural address, 
delivered October 15, 1880: "The total result of this great investigation cannot 
be a moment in doubt, and may be briefly summed up as follows : That the 
Realschuh of the first rank * * * is incapable of furnishing a preparation 
for academic studies equal to that offered by the Gymnashim ; that the Real- 
schuh lacks a central point, about which all other branches may group them- 
selves, while the Gymnasittm possesses such a point in the classical languages ; 
that all efforts to find a substitute for the classical languages, whether in mathe- 
matics, in the modern languages, or in the natural sciences, have been hitherto 
unsuccessful ; that, after long and vain search, we must always come back finally 
to the result of centuries of experience that the surest instrument that can be used 
in training the mind of youth is given us in the study of the languages, the litera- 
ture, and the works of art of classical antiquity." 



(i5) 

Arts. It still furnishes a desirable passport to the company of the 
most cultivated and gifted in Europe and America. It makes lumin- 
ous the English of the precious New Testament Scriptures. It fur- 
nishes a universally recognized nomenclature in every department of 
science and art. But I cannot attach much value to the protracted 
and profound study of mere words, the mere grammar of those 
tongues, the mere syntax, the mere etymologies — in a word, the mere 
husks aside from the kernel of thought. What has that to do with 
the conduct of life ? I cannot see how the painful rendering of 
English into Latin or Greek by the same student, year after year, 
can furnish a very nutritious diet to a hungry soul. I fear I cannot 
appreciate the utility of spending months, cr weeks, in mastering the 
rules of Greek accentuation, or memorizing the exceptions in Latin 
prosody. I cannot sympathize deeply with the German classicist, 
who on his death-bed lamented that he had not given his life more 
completely to a study of the dative case ! 

Perhaps, for mere linguistic drill, one of these two languages should 
be counted sufficient ; and perhaps that linguistic drill should, for 
the average student, be confined to the course preparatory to college. 
Both languages should be read as a preparation, but mainly for their 
discipline and contents rather than for themselves. Why not dis- 
continue wholly, in college, if not before, the translation of English 
into Latin or Greek ? In after life, no man speaks them ; no man 
writes them. The nice logic and delicate shades of meaning involved 
in the oratio obliqua and the subjunctive and optative moods, can be 
appreciated without being imitated. Omitting the unnecessary study 
of mere forms and petty exceptions, it will be easy to gain, in the 
time now given to Greek and Latin, facility in reading at sight both 
those languages, and, in addition, French, or German, or Italian, or 
Spanish. A month's practice with a native teacher would then super- 
add facility in speaking any one of these tongues. 

Mathematics lies at the base of many arts and sciences — we might 
almost say, at the base of the universe itself. There is no question as 
to its utility in its million applications. Beyond almost any other 
study, it is found to promote a habit of concentration, steadiness, and 
logical method. But as a discipline in training one to reason on 
probabilities, drawing conclusions from uncertain premises, weighing 
contingencies and striking a just balance — in such reasoning as con- 
stitutes the logic of events — such reasoning as underlies almost all the 
conduct of life — the deep study of mathematics is perhaps not the 



(i6) 

best discipline. All in mathematics is certain ; all the events of life 
are uncertain. Its value is great ; but it is possible for a profound 
mathematician to be unpractical, illogical, foolish. 

If the proper study of mankind is man, history and mental philos- 
ophy will always have a place in the curriculum of a higher education. 
They ought to be made exceedingly interesting and profitable. 

As to the teaching of physical science, the tendency which we ob- 
serve in many colleges to attempt to crowd the work of the lifetime 
of a great master into the four years of a college course, necessarily 
ends either in superficiality or in a disproportionate exaltation of one 
branch over others. The thing to be done would seem to be to 
map out carefully the boundaries of the principal fields of knowledge ; 
to illustrate the method of investigation in each, giving the student 
actual practice therein, as in chemistry, physics, botany, biology ; and 
to show where and how to find and use the best authorities on any 
given topic. Such a variety of fields of labor should be shown, and 
such a beginning should be made, that the student can intelligently 
elect one in which, in after years, he may delight to walk and work. 
For in an ideal society every one has, in the first place, a broad, deep 
basis of learning and culture, and, in the next place, some favorite 
science, or art, or department of labor, in which, year after year, he 
can attain high excellence, and even become at last a recognized au- 
thority. How rich would our civilization be, if each were thoroughly 
educated in the general foundations and extraordinarily proficient in 
some specialty, knowing a little of everything and a great deal of 
some one thing ! 

The value of the study of physical science as a mental discipline 
does not, as some might suppose, depend upon the prosecution of 
one branch until the student becomes a full-fledged chemist, astrono- 
mer, botanist, or other scientist. It depends rather upon the habit 
it engenders and fixes of keen observation and careful reflection.'' 
Given such habits, the foundation is well laid : this is all that a col- 
lege can undertake. When the institution flowers into a university, 
specialists will ripen, but not till then. 

As combining mental discipline with the commonest utility, the 
study of the English language and literature is unsurpassed. It is 
not necessary that the average American girl be a linguist in Latin, 
or Greek, or French, or German, or Spanish, or Italian, or profoundly 
versed in any of these literatures ; but it is necessary that she be able 
to speak and write her own language with correctness, fluency, and 



■(17) 

elegance, and that she be not ignorant of those literary productions 
of which the English-speaking world is proud. There is in the great 
English masterpieces an educating power of which teachers in general 
have little conception. Merely to be able to read the best passages 
aloud, with just appreciation and appropriate vocal expression, is no 
insignificant attainment ; yet it should be insisted upon as an indis- 
pensable prerequisite to a diploma. And why should not these great 
works be made the foundation and the material for linguistic and 
rhetorical study, as the masterpieces of the Greek writers have been 
from time immemorial ? Form and style aside, and perhaps we 
ought not to except these, is there anything in ^Eschylus or Sopho- 
cles richer than in Shakespeare ? anything in Homer grander than in 
Milton ? anything in Demosthenes nobler than in Chatham, Burke, 
or Webster? anything in Plato superior in moral beauty to the utter- 
ances of Moses, or David, or Job, or Solomon, or Isaiah ? Why, 
a thorough understanding of the three great English classics — the 
Bible, Shakespeare, and Milton— would be better than the entire 
education given in nine-tenths of the so-called colleges. A system- 
atic and progressive study of the English language and literature 
through four years, seems to me one of the most desirable features 
in any institution for the superior instruction of American women. 

But there are truths which unaided intellect cannot grasp. They 
lie beyond the domain of mere logic and physical science. In the 
realm of sentiment, emotion, and faith, the mind gropes, the tongue 
falters; yet the forces are there, vast and overwhelming; and from 
them comes truth, not always to be formulated, but yet most real, 
the parent of the highest wisdom. On the profoundly religious na- 
ture dawns a light of which the masses never dream. " Blessed are 
the pure in heart, for they shall see God." And this brings us to the 
most important end to be sought in the higher education of women. 
It is 

3. Moral perfection. We assume that at the center of the uni- 
verse is enthroned a Power that makes for righteousness. It is good 
and it does good. Alas for us if we are not in sympathy with that 
Power ; the universe is against us ! While we aim at the finest phy- 
sical health, the shrewdest common sense, the best classified and 
most comprehensive external fundamental knowledge, the trained eye 
and the adroit hand, the most vigorous intellectual discipline, let us 
remember that, whatever we learn or fail to learn of science, or 
language, or history, or philosophy, or art, the heart must be pure, the 



(.i8) 

conscience keen, the purpose to serve that central Intelligence by 
being useful to man must be definite and absorbing; the whole being, 
heart and soul, must be irreversibly set to do one's part in making 
the world better and happier. It should be distinctly understood 
that, without such a steady, intelligent, industrious devotion to duty 
and to goodness, life, though passed in more than royal luxury, is 
a failure. But given bodily health, cultivated intellect, enlightened 
conscience, wise patriotism, modest self-sacrifice, resolute consecra- 
tion to the work of lifting some one person, at least, higher in the 
scale of being, of freeing one's self and others from the thraldom of 
appetite, of diffusing more and more the spirit of mutual helpfulness 
and all-embracing charity : with hand ready and strong to help the 
weak one who is struggling up, or thwart the influences that are 
dragging down — such a life, though passed in penury, and cold, and 
hunger, and unpopularity, is a magnificent success, and needs but a 
fortunate identification with some one great cause to achieve the high- 
est greatness of which human nature is capable. On many a monu- 
ment or mausoleum that towers in splendid mockery towards the skies 
over the dust of one who, while he lived, "was clothed in purple and 
fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day," the lying epitaphs have 
vanished at last, and the muse of history has written in letters that 
all may read — 

" Born to eat and be despised and die, 
Even as the brutes that perish ; save that thou 
Hadst a more splendid trough and wider stye ! " 

But costly temples are still rising in many lands, and ever increasing 
millions stand with uncovered heads, or fall upon their knees, in 
honor of one born in a stable near nineteen hundred years ago, 
houseless and homeless, and at last cruelly slain, who came not to 
be ministered unto, but to minister. " Why do you ride in a third- 
class car ?" said a fashionable woman to a rich curate of the English 
Church, who sought every opportunity to labor with the poor. "Be- 
cause there is no fourth class," was the reply. 

Is it too much to hope that such a lofty purpose of beneficence 
may be formed in every breast ? a practical recognition of the divine 
Fatherhood, the universal brotherhood ? a conscious enrollment in 
the company of those who in every age stand for truth and right and 
human weal? 

If we ask for the instrumentalities, we are favored with many 



(i9) 

creeds, many societies. Each has its special value. In some one of 
these almost any sincere person might find valuable help. In the 
study of the sacred books and of the lives of the best men and 
women, there is perpetual inspiration. But chief in importance must 
be the example of instructors who are visibly living the higher life. 
In the presence of such a witness, skepticism vanishes, atheism is 
dumb. 

Unworthy motives must be discountenanced. Prizes for relative 
superiority ought perhaps never to be given in a girls' sohool. If 
such stimulus is needed, the fact proves that the teachers are not 
competent. Women were not made to be competitors, but help- 
mates of each other, as well as of man. It is better to be an indif- 
ferent scholar than to be stimulated to greater learning by the sole 
desire of outdoing somebody else. The emulation so fostered would 
seem to be the very essence of selfishness ; its natural outcome, con- 
ceit, hardness, Ishmaelism. Sound learning may well say of such 
aids, 

"JVon tali auxilio, nee defensoribus istis, 
Tempus eget." 

For the building of institutions in which these principles and ideas 
shall prevail, the time is auspicious. We are living near the mid- 
dle of the last quarter of a century more remarkable than any other 
for the progress of civilization. And, of all the elements of that 
civilization — wealth, science, art, literature, invention, freedom, re- 
ligion — perhaps no other has made a progress so vast as education. 
Kindergartens, normal schools, Chautauqua circles, Sunday schools, 
chairs of pedagogics, societies for the encouragement of home stud- 
ies, teachers' institutes, public libraries, the educational newspa- 
per — these and other mighty agencies have been superadded to the 
didactic machinery of a hundred years ago. But the most salient 
feature in this progress has been the advance in female education. 
In the year 1800 there was probably not an institution, even in fa- 
vored New England, in which a young woman could study higher 
arithmetic, algebra, geometry, rhetoric, Latin, Greek, or any modern 
language. Now we have in the United States at least one hundred 
and twenty colleges and universities, some of them in the very front 
rank, open equally to both sexes, and numbering three or four 
thousand women engaged in proper college studies ; two hundred 
and twenty-seven other seminaries, most of them termed colleges 



(20) 

and many of them worthy of the name, expressly designed for the 
collegiate instruction of women, and containing 29,000 young lady 
students ; over fifteen hundred academies for secondary instruction, 
nearly all admitting girls, who number about 70,000 pupils out of a 
total of 138.000; one hundred and fourteen public normal schools, 
with over 28,000 students in training to become teachers, the ladies 
outnumbering the gentlemen two to one ; and thousands of high 
schools, in the most advanced of which, as in Boston, Chicago, and 
San Francisco, the female students constitute a majority. 

For the building of such institutions as we propose, the spirit of the 
age, too, is auspicious. The time is fast approaching when a young lady 
who voluntarily neglects the abundant opportunities to gain the higher 
education will be likely to be regarded as lacking in sense or energy, an- 
tiquated, belonging to a past generation. The comingwoman evidently 
is to possess physical grace and strength, speech fluent and sprightly 
and wise, a nimble apprehension, clear common sense, elegance born 
of converse with the choicest minds, a keen enjoyment of music and 
art, intelligent patriotism, a soul alive to the beauties and sublimities 
of nature and moved almost to idolatry by the still more beautiful 
and more sublime deeds of heroic history; a supply of intellectual 
and moral riches, the best thoughts and noblest words of the best 
and noblest; faith in God and faith in man; a heart warm, brave, 
tender, and true ; a sense of honor, of right, that will die a thousand 
deaths rather than stoop to shame ; a love that shall make home 
heaven. Well sings our greatest living American writer : 

' ' Not as all other women are 
Is she that to my soul is dear; 
Her glorious fancies come from far 
Beneath the silver evening star, 
And yet her heart is ever near. 

' ' Great feelings hath she of her own, 
Which' lesser souls may never know; 
God giveth them to her alone, 
And sweet they are as any tone 
Wherewith the wind may choose to blow. 

"Yet in herself she dwelleth not, 
Although no home were half so fair ; 
No simplest duty is forgot, 
Life hath no dim and lowly spot 
That doth not in her sunshine share. 



(21) 

" She doeth little kindnesses, 
Which most leave undone or despise ; 
For nought that sets one's heart at ease 
And giveth happiness and peace 
Is low-esteemed in her eyes. 

" She hath no scorn of common things ; 
And though she seems of other birth, 
Round us her heart entwines and clings, 
And patiently she folds her wings 
To tread the humble paths of earth. 

" Blessing she is : God made her so. 
And deeds of week-day holiness 
Fall from her noiseless as the snow, 
Nor hath she ever chanced to know 
That aught were easier than to bless. 

" She is most fair, and thereunto 
Her life doth rightly harmonize ; 
Feeling or thought that was not true 
Ne'er made less beautiful the blue 
Unclouded heaven of her eyes. 

" She is a woman : one in whom 
The spring-time of her childish years 
Hath never lost its fresh perfume, 
Though knowing well that life hath room 
For many blights and many tears. " 



And well may the poet add : 

" I love her with a love as still 
As a broad river's peaceful might, 
Which, by high tower and lowly mill, 
Goes wandering at its own will, 
And yet doth ever flow aright. 

"And on its full deep breast serene, 
Like quiet isles my duties lie ; 
It flows around them and between, 
And makes them fresh, and fair and green, 
Sweet homes wherein to live and die." 

And why may not California be the place for this choicest out- 
come of all the ages ? Women are everywhere better than men ; 
girls are better than boys ; but here it seems to me as if the men 
were larger and stronger, the women fairer and healthier, than I have 



(22) 

elsewhere seen. The mental and physical energy, the courage, the 
self-sacrifice, that brought nine-tenths of these typical Americans to 
the Pacific shore, still characterize the sons and daughters. Better 
material for lofty manhood and womanhood does not exist on earth. 
Under these genial skies, unhindered by the extremes of an inaus- 
picious climate, less fettered by tyrannical customs ; here, where boun- 
teous nature all the year long pours forth her treasures in unparalleled 
variety and inexhaustible profusion ; here, where the light of America 
confronts the light of Asia as the golden west glides into the purple 
east ; it needs but the highest education to produce a society not less 
rich in intellect and far nobler in morals that that of ancient Greece 
in her palmiest age, and to realize, not in external nature alone, but 
in spiritual beauty and grandeur also, the fulfillment of Shelley's 
prophetic vision — 

"A brighter Hellas rears its mountains 
From waves serener far, 
A new Peneus rolls its fountains " 
Against the morning star." 

Nor could a fairer foundation have been laid for one of the insti- 
tutions that may usher in " the all-hail hereafter," than has been laid 
in this particular spot. The far-seeing sagacity, the unwearied toil, 
the sleepless vigilance, the unselfish devotion, the perfect consecra- 
tion of Dr. and Mrs. Mills, have made this seminary a nobler mon- 
ument and a more valuable gift to the cause of education than the 
ancient world ever saw. It is for us to foster, develop, and expand 
it in accordance with the plans of those royal minds and large, lov- 
ing hearts. Let it be distinctly understood that Mills Seminary is 
not to be destroyed, nor crippled, but to be made more efficient, if 
possible, than before. A college is to be superadded, but the old 
seminary is to continue until it is clear that it is no longer needed. 
No one of its officers or instructors would favor the plan of suddenly 
discontinuing its work ; still less of changing a first-class seminary 
into a second-rate college. Both seminary and college are needed 
now. Let us perfect them both. The college proper must be a 
growth ; how rapid or how slow must depend in a great part upon 
those liberal men and women of California, who, like these two ben- 
efactors, shall show how godlike it is to use large resources for the 
good of their fellow men. We can have but a life estate in accumu- 
lated wealth ; is it not wise, like Peter Cooper, long before death, to 



■<*3) 

insure to many generations the benefit of the reversion ? There are 
professorships to be established and to be called forever by the names 
of the generous givers of the endowment, scholarships to be created 
that shall bear through all time the names of the donors. We need 
an observatory to be similarly designated ; and laboratories, physical, 
chemical, botanical, zoological ; a vastly larger library ; an art gal- 
lery ; a gymnasium, and other buildings ; a lake, on which these 
young women, in boat clubs, may take the most delightful and most 
healthful of all exercise. What move honorable ambition than to de- 
sire to perpetuate one's family name, or the name of a dear friend, by 
linking it forever with a public benefaction ? Oxford University has 
lasted a thousand years ; we trust that this institution will stand till the 
end of time, and the names of the scholarships already given, and of 
their munificent donors — William Raymond, of San Francisco ; Mrs. 
William Hyde and Sarah R. Sage, of Ware, Mass. ; James and Mar- 
garet Williamson, of New York ; Mr. and Mrs. William H. Bailey, 
of the Sandwich Islands; Mrs. M. S. Percy, of Oakland; Mrs. William 
E. Dodge, of New York ; Fannie Morrison, of Santa Clara ; and 
Leavitt H. Hallock, of Portland, Maine — these names will never die. 
May they be but the beginning of a long roll of names, never-to-be- 
forgotten, liberal patrons of this institution and real benefactors of 
their race ! 

Gentlemen of the Board of Trustees, Teachers, Pupils, Friends : — 
Entertaining such views of the need, the nature, the instrumentali- 
ties, and the possibilities of female education on the Pacifie shore, 
the invitation to take charge of this institution came to me like a call 
from heaven. So may it prove. But I must ask you to be patient 
with me. Grateful beyond expression for the kindness I have re- 
ceived and the confidence you have expressed, I must beg you to 
remember that one man is little or nothing ; associated effort under 
God is well-nigh all powerful. Give us your sympathy, your coun- 
sel, your liberal assistance, your earnest prayers. So may our direc- 
tors ever be guided from on high, so may our teachers all be taught 
by a better than human wisdom, so may our pupils learn the great 
lesson of life, that all who in coming time shall have knowledge of 
this institution may be able confidently to bespeak for it the sym- 
pathetic support of good men and the loving smile of Almighty God ! 



LIBRARY OF C0NGRES ^, 

022 138 736 3 ( 



